A Wedding, a Rose and a Red Hot Poker

Being away from the garden for the whole weekend always feels like lost time that I will never get back. But this weekend I have been in Devon at the wedding of Tory and Jamie. This was the most enjoyable wedding I have ever attended. Both families had worked really hard to make it an amazing day. The wedding was held in Tory’s dads’ garden, which was stunning, with the reception in the field behind the house.

One feature of the garden was raised beds with both vegetables and flowers combined looked stunning with a wonderful display of centaureas.

The arbour where the bride and groom took their vows was bounded on either side by verbena which must have been five feet tall. One area of the garden featured a huge bug house made of stacked pallets reminiscent of the Bug hotels in Manchester city centre.

It was a fantastic day and I wish Tory and Jamie all the best for the future.

Returning to my garden on Sunday afternoon I was surprised to find the changes that have occurred in the garden in such a short time. Yes the weeds seem to have taken a hold again but numerous plants have really come to life.

The roses on the central arch have burst into life and look and smell wonderful. As you can see the climbing rose is not exactly following the arch. Some gentle persuading will be required.

The rambling rose is growing much slower than the climbing rose having only reached about half way up the arch.

The flower spikes on the verbena have appeared from no where and shot up. They are going to be much taller than I expected and have been planted too close to the front of the bed. I will have to move them in the spring.

A flower has sprung up on the Kniphofia (red hot poker) I hadn’t expected it to flower this year as the plant is so small. An unexpected bonus.

There seems to have been more change this weekend than in the previous weeks. Without me the garden just gets on with it.

We moved into this house in 2013. At that time the garden was a blank canvas, This blog is a scrapbook of my gardening journey. Something I can look back on and remember the highs and lows, something that perhaps other people will enjoy reading and hopefully commenting on along the way.